On Jan. 8, 2020, as I was parking my car, I got a long-awaited phone call from one of my son’s doctors. She informed me that our 7-month-old son, Eliot, had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal neuromuscular disease. I can see my neighbor walking up her steps with groceries, a leaf falling, oblivious to the devastation below. It is caused by a genetic mutation on the X chromosome, thus the disease almost exclusively affects boys (one in 3,300). lose muscle mass and thus the ability to do basic things like run and walk.

---

Persons: Eliot, Joan Didion, D.M.D, Jerry Mendell Organizations: Nationwide Children’s Hospital, D.M.D Locations: Columbus , Ohio